Bush in the Middle East (again): Big talk, big disappointment

In Egypt, during the last leg of his latest Middle East trip, Bush met with the U.S.-financed, democracy-crushing, Egyptian dictator-president, Hosni Mubarak

The headline of the latest editorial in France’s sober daily, Le Monde, refers to “the fiasco of Bush.” As George W. Bush returns to Washington after a five-day junket to the Middle East, where he gushed over the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding but offered the beleaguered Palestinians nothing, two big components of the “balance sheet of his two terms in office,” Le Monde notes, have become more lamentably obvious than ever. They are “a destabilized region,” meaning the Middle East (which is now arguably more unstable than ever before), and “credit that has been reduced to almost nothing.” That’s not just the financial-credit status of the debt-ridden U.S. government, which is borrowing billions of dollars a day just to cover its operating expenses, but also its political-diplomatic credit, for, under Bush, the United States has lost its once-respected leadership status on the world stage.

Israel remains the largest routine winner of U.S. foreign aid, receiving a no-strings-attached handout of some $3 billion annually. The democracy-crushing regime of Egyptian dictator-president Hosni Mubarak, which has been going strong for more than 25 years – the strongman is grooming his son to succeed him – pockets the second-largest handout of American-taxpayer largesse each year. That amount is around $2 billion. (USAID, U.S. Department of State and the Los Angeles Times)

Last Wednesday, Bush addressed Israel’s parliament on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state

A separate news article in Le Monde notes that Bush left the Middle East region yesterday “leaving behind him a good amount of skepticism or resentment, and no apparent sign that his effort [to encourage] a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians” had made any progress. Bush, concerned about his historical legacy, given his failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rash of corruption that has characterized his period in office, has called on the two sides to come up with an accord before he leaves the White house early next year. Given the lack of peace-making progress between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Le Monde notes, “Bush…risks leaving the impression of déjà-vu,” for now, four months after his last for-the-cameras trip to the region, he has left it again “without any major progress” to show for his visit. Notes the Scotsman: Bush’s latest Middle East tour “was billed as seeking to broker a decisive breakthrough in the Israel-Palestine peace process. If that was…Bush’s valedictory aim, he has not succeeded. To all intents and purposes, there is no peace process. Palestine [sic] has split into its Gaza and West Bank halves, and there is no authority in any position to negotiate a meaningful settlement…” (Scotsman; registration required)

Yesterday, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Bush showed up at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. At the gathering, Egypt’s Mubarak “denounced U.S. economic policies that have aggravated world food shortages and fueled a growing gap between rich and poor.” Meanwhile, the “tension between the allies underscored how Washington’s ‘freedom agenda’ in the region had failed to gain traction….Bush admitted as much, taking an unusually strident tone with Arab leaders for discriminating against women and punishing dissidents.” In a speech before the gathering, Bush said: “Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail….The time has come for nations across the Middle East to abandon these practices and treat their people with the dignity and respect they deserve.” (Times) (Bush did not refer to the United States’ ongoing funding of Mubarak’s regime or to his own administration’s support of torture, violations of the U.S. Constitution, illegal elimination of habeas corpus protection and illegal spying on American citizens.)

Last week in Amman, Jordan, supporters of the Islamic Action Front took part in a rally to protest Israeli attacks on Palestinians and to mark the 60th anniversary of what Arabs call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe”, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees were forced to flee their homes in the fighting that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948

In a summary of Bush’s remarks at the confab in Egypt, Xinhua, the Chinese, state-controlled news agency, notes that he stated: “Palestinians must fight terror and continue to build the institutions of a free and peaceful society. Israel must make tough sacrifices for peace and ease restrictions on Palestinians.” Xinhua reports: “However, [Bush] did not suggest concrete steps to resolve the issues that keep a peace agreement from being formed. Analysts said its very difficult to reach major breakthroughs on the core issues such as the final status of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees….Israel and the Palestinian National Authority…resumed peace talks in November 2007 following a U.S.-hosted conference held in Annapolis [, Maryland]. Now that almost half a year has passed, no significant progress has been achieved in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians….Even U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, [who was a member] of Bush’s entourage, said last Tuesday that reaching such a deal within the next eight months might be ‘improbable,’ though not impossible.”

On a historical note, Xinhua‘s report adds that Bush’s latest trip to the Middle East was “criticized by Arabs,” including Khadija Elafa, a Cairo-based political analyst who observed “that Bush’s visit came at ‘a very bad time for all Palestinians and for all Arabs.'” Elafa said: “If Israel doesn’t change its current practices against the Palestinians, there is no hope for the two sides to reach a truce.” Mohammad Jassem al-Saqr, the speaker of the Interim Arab Parliament, criticized Bush’s visit to Israel on the occasion of what the Arabs call their “nakba” (“catastrophe”), referring to the founding of Israel. Mohammad Jassem al-Saqr “said [Bush’s] visit was sending wrong signals, noting it meant that the United States is consenting to Israeli practices against the Palestinians which run counter to the international legitimacy resolutions.”

Last Wednesday, Palestinians participated in a Nakba rally in front of the controversial Israeli “security wall” in Abu Dis, on the edge of Jerusalem

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is considered a political moderate, yesterday said that he had been “angered by…Bush’s recent remarks [last week] to Israel’s parliament, which were widely seen in the Arab world as tilted toward the Jewish state. Abbas said he conveyed his disappointment to Bush when they met” at the conference at Sharm El-Sheikh. Abbas remarked: “I frankly, clearly and transparently asked him that the American position should be balanced.” The publisher of Al-Ahram, a prominent, Egyptian daily, wrote in the newspaper this past weekend: “The Torah-inspired speech [that Bush delivered to Israel’s parliament] raised question marks over the credibility of the U.S. role in the Middle East….Bush aims to do nothing but appeasing Israel.” During his latest Middle East junket, Bush “did not visit the Palestinian territories nor mention the Palestinians’ plight. He spoke of them only in one sentence[,] saying that Israel’s 120th anniversary – [which will take place] in 2068 – would see it neighboring an independent Palestinian state.” Abbas, who yesterday told Israeli parliament member Yossi Beilin “that he would resign if there was no substantial progress in peace talks over the next six months,” also told reporters: “We do not want the Americans to negotiate on our behalf….All that we want from them is to stand by [our] legitimacy and have a minimum of neutrality.” (Associated Press in the International Herald Tribune)